Does anyone else feel we may be going bust??

[Tommy2holes]

Dont ask me why but i have had a sneeky suspiscion for a while now that the club is in financial dire straights.

Havent got anything more to back this up other than a hunch here say and things that have been said and are happening.

For instance Ron said a while back that we needed 8k average to break even and we have pretty much had that 3 years in a row. We also made about 800k on the chelsea games and about 6-700k on player sales without really buying anyone in. Yet somehow we posted a 2 million+ loss.

Why have we suddenly moved a load of fixtures to friday nights?? Its well established that southend have traditionally got larger crowds friday nights and that means more revenue.

Coupled with a distinct lack of transfer activity or any suggestion of activity i have a sinking feeling that there is a lot more going on than meets the eye.

Am i being a doom monger or does anybody else think something is happening aswell.

 

[Blue_Shrimper1959]

I think people forget that the club has large debts to pay off, so any money coming in needs to accommodate for that as well, however putting in bids of £100k for a player in a position we are already well catered for doesn't really sound like a club that's going bust. We also do have a brand new stadium on its way, so putting some extra pennies in the bank for a few years is hardly going to do us any harm.

All because we move games to Friday nights to gain more revenue doesn't mean we're going bust, its just good sense that if we can make more money on a Friday night that we play on a Friday night.

On the transfer front, we always seem to be slow in whatever window, however who knows maybe Tilly's waiting to surprise us and reveal 5 BIG new signings come the 1st July when the window officially opens ;)

 

[Rob1920]

Worry yee not. My various friends who play golf with / play football against / go to pottery classes with Ron assure me all is fine. We're just being careful.

 

[Tommy2holes]

Seriously ron doesnt strike me as the pottery or football playing type lol

 

[EastStandBlue]

We've always moved a considerable amount of fixtures to Friday nights, and in this economic climate we're making the right moves in able to ensure revenue stays as high as it possibly can.

Funds are being moved, perhaps disproportionately, towards the stadium build... I think we can all agree on that and pretty much guarantee that this is a wise move and one which will reinforce our future.

If things really were in a dire position financially, there'd be far more stories of people chasing us for repayments, and RM has always been open and swift with his responses on the few occasions when stories related to debts have been blown out of proportion by the local press.

I don't think we're in financial trouble any more than any other club our size is at this moment in time...

 

[Jedi Shrimper]

For instance Ron said a while back that we needed 8k average to break even and we have pretty much had that 3 years in a row. We also made about 800k on the chelsea games and about 6-700k on player sales without really buying anyone in. Yet somehow we posted a 2 million+ loss.

What a load of crap. The £2million loss was for the 07-08 season, the year after relegation, which brings with it a hefty loss on tv rights revenue not to mention most of our players will have been on championship wages when we were operating on league one gates & revenues.

Spending money we don't have on players in the the middle of a recession chasing promotion against clubs with greater resources would be a far more worrying situation than moving a few games to a friday.

ffs.

 

[Rob1920]

Seriously ron doesnt strike me as the pottery or football playing type lol

You'd be surprised. He made me a lovely fruit bowl.

 

[Tommy2holes]

Well baring in mind there are quite a few of our players till on championship wages would in not be prudent to say that a similar loss will be registered against last seasons accounts??

All i am saying is there seems to be no continuity with regards to information coming from the club. First theres a so called warchest and then there isnt, i mean its easy to bid 100k for someone when you no you havent a chance in hell of landing them. And whilst we are on the subject how can it be that a player that has scored more goals in his last two seasons than most of our strikers together can be deemed not worth 200k? I mean i didnt see us holding back on foran paynter harrold revell. None of them score goals but were seemingly worth the fee.

Apparently we have been due to be on site every other month for about 6 months ,but i dont see a hint of day glow over there.
The next excuse will be that its winter and we will have to wait till next summer.

And its all very well switching games to fridays, but what about the exiles who have seasos. Will it seem such a good idea when 500 seasos are cancelled as a result.

Just seems to me that all the talk of the last few years has gone stale and that there may well be alot more going on behind the scenes than we would want to here.

 

[DTS]

In a word - no.

Sure RM would not be spending the money he is spending on reports etc for the new stadium if we were about to go pop.

I think in reality he is being cautious in a tight market. We as fans want signings when in reality we are maybe better keeping costs down until FF arrives.

 

[NZamba Legend]

We as fans want signings when in reality we are maybe better keeping costs down until FF arrives.

Fabrice Fernandes?

 

[Firestorm]

For instance Ron said a while back that we needed 8k average to break even and we have pretty much had that 3 years in a row. We also made about 800k on the chelsea games and about 6-700k on player sales without really buying anyone in. Yet somehow we posted a 2 million+ loss.

.

The Loss posted was to 31/7/2008, the Chelsea games were in the next financial year,

That said RM did mention last week that he expected similar losses for the current year.

We will only go bust if the debts get called in, as things currently stand the majority of the debt is to parent / associated companies and as long as we keep paying HMRC (which this year , as last, is being paid by RM / MD) our debts are likely to remain outstanding, but in place

 

[DTS]

Fabrice Fernandes?

Yes,

Once the dainty French winger signs up I can really seem things happening for us. Only problem is he isnt a friend of JFC's so our chances of getting him seem somewhat limited.

 

[overseas shrimper]

I don't think we're going to the wall, but I do think we're curbing our ambitions and looking to place in or around the play-offs until we're settled in FF. To be honest, I am more than fine with this. I don't think we have the resources, until FF is our new home (with its added revenue streams, larger capacity for those big games and hopefully larger fan base), to compete at the next level.

I'd just like Ron to honestly state what our ambitions are and, should there be any truth in my theory, if Tilly and Brush are fully on board with this.

 

[Suffolk Blue]

Does anyone else feel we may be going bust??

Dont ask me why but i have had a sneeky suspiscion for a while now that the club is in financial dire straights.

Havent got anything more to back this up other than a hunch here say and things that have been said and are happening.

For instance Ron said a while back that we needed 8k average to break even and we have pretty much had that 3 years in a row. We also made about 800k on the chelsea games and about 6-700k on player sales without really buying anyone in. Yet somehow we posted a 2 million+ loss.

Why have we suddenly moved a load of fixtures to friday nights?? Its well established that southend have traditionally got larger crowds friday nights and that means more revenue.

Coupled with a distinct lack of transfer activity or any suggestion of activity i have a sinking feeling that there is a lot more going on than meets the eye.

Am i being a doom monger or does anybody else think something is happening aswell.

Nothing that I've read or heard would leave me to believe we're going bust.

As you said, we've brought about as many fans through the gates as we expected, and had the windfall of the Chelsea cup games.

Yes, Friday night fixtures look to be a way of increasing revenue; but that isn't indicative of anything other than we want as much income as possible.

And we don't know how much transfer activity there's been. We haven't brought any players in yet, but we know that there have been discussions, bids, etc. (i.e. transfer activity), and the fact that we actually bid for a player indicates that there is some cash in the bank.

So yes, I think you're being a doom monger and are probably just missing your footie :)

 

[Mad Cyril]

If we do go bust then Roots hall is going to become the biggest Christmas/Fireworks/Pound shop in the world.

For me that would go a long way towards easing the pain.

 

[Jedi Shrimper]

Well baring in mind there are quite a few of our players till on championship wages would in not be prudent to say that a similar loss will be registered against last seasons accounts??

Yes. I would expect that the losses would be a bit less though, as player turnover would mean more 'league one wage' players coming in.

As far as I can see the club are being prudent with the finances in order to safeguard it's future.

 

[weststander]

Well baring in mind there are quite a few of our players till on championship wages would in not be prudent to say that a similar loss will be registered against last seasons accounts??
I believe Ron has already said he expects to lose around the same amount for last season

All i am saying is there seems to be no continuity with regards to information coming from the club. First theres a so called warchest and then there isnt, i mean its easy to bid 100k for someone when you no you havent a chance in hell of landing them. And whilst we are on the subject how can it be that a player that has scored more goals in his last two seasons than most of our strikers together can be deemed not worth 200k? I mean i didnt see us holding back on foran paynter harrold revell. None of them score goals but were seemingly worth the fee.
I see where youre coming from but when we bought the three you mention we had an extra £2million in TV cash to help us, we also have no proof that Ron has ever said no to Tilly when he has requested transfer funds

Apparently we have been due to be on site every other month for about 6 months ,but i dont see a hint of day glow over there.
The next excuse will be that its winter and we will have to wait till next summer.Ron said recently that he expected to be onsite in the summer, as summer is only officially a few days old can i suggest we give it a while longer, if we are not onsite come October then i too will be asking whats happening !

And its all very well switching games to fridays, but what about the exiles who have seasos. Will it seem such a good idea when 500 seasos are cancelled as a result.
Fridays has always been popular for our games, i was brought up on Friday night football in the 70s and 80s, it was the only time my dad could bring me as he worked on a saturday. Also from a mercenary point of view if 500 seasos are cancelled (and i seriously dont think it will be many more than a handful) then thats 500 seats that could be sold at full price

Just seems to me that all the talk of the last few years has gone stale and that there may well be alot more going on behind the scenes than we would want to here.

We've been waiting 20 odd years for a new stadium and i for one can wait another 1 or even 2 years for it to become a reality....just think when its built we have to leave Roots Hall where a lot of us have grown up :-(

 

[philtalkin]

We've been waiting 20 odd years for a new stadium and i for one can wait another 1 or even 2 years for it to become a reality....just think when its built we have to leave Roots Hall where a lot of us have grown up :-(

I can go one better than that, but I draw then line at 4!

 

[Crawliano]

Dont ask me why but i have had a sneeky suspiscion for a while now that the club is in financial dire straights.

Havent got anything more to back this up other than a hunch here say and things that have been said and are happening.

Ask the club for a copy of the accounts for the past 5 years or so, then you can either draw your own conclusions or request the help of someone who knows what these figures mean, I would then be happy to see a nice PowerPoint presentation of your fact findings, should the answers not be what you want to see in that we have always been losing money which has been underwritten by a holding company but has been sustainable and you would rather go for scaremongering and hunches then do so.

I'll even pay for projector hire, a laser pen,cheese/ham/ploughmans sandwiches, 3 tubes of Pringles and a series of "Ron Out" placards to be used to back up your hunches.

Ta

 

[Strykr]

seriously doubt it, skint, and all eggs in the new stadium basket maybe, but bust? we've been on a better run lately than in years, like someone else said, im happy to wait a few more years for the stadium, one of the first programmes i bought had a picture of Eric Steele on the front and our "supposed" new ground splashed on the back!!, this time despite delays it genuinely feels like it might happen. heres hoping....